(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-04 07:59

McCain, an Arizona senator, held a 2-to-1 margin in a new national Washington Post-ABC poll. In the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, McCain held double-digit leads in New York, New Jersey and Missouri but narrowly trailed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in California.

McCain was guardedly optimistic about his chances on Super Tuesday but admitted that after an up-and-down campaign year, "I'm very nervous about it."

Superstitious by nature, McCain knocked on the table of his campaign bus in Fairfield, Connecticut, to give himself good luck. But he also talked willingly about how he would conduct a general election campaign if he wins the nomination.

Even as his lead in the polls widened, McCain still faced questions from one section of the party over whether he was conservative enough.

Romney hit that theme and pointed to a large turnout in Maine on Saturday that gave him a victory there as evidence conservatives were giving McCain another look.

"I'm afraid it's going to be real hard to win the White House if there's not much difference between our nominee and theirs, and that's why I'm going to make sure that we stand for Republican ideals," Romney told a Glen Ellyn, Illinois, rally.

But McCain pointed to a number of prominent Republican conservatives who were supporting him.

"I'm very happy with where we are," he said. "I'm pleased at the gathering support from all parts of the party that we're gaining."

One of the problems facing Romney on Super Tuesday is that he is competing for conservative votes along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Huckabee said Romney, as a late comer to conservative causes, should recognize him as the true conservative and get out of the race.

"He wants to try to claim that he's the true conservative," Huckabee said on CNN's "Late Edition." "I think that's what rankles many of us. ... He's a recent convert, and now he is shouting hallelujah louder than the rest of us who have been in church a long time."

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